Tagged With early humans

A DNA sample from a 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in Gough Cave near Cheddar Gorge, England, offers a remarkable revelation: The first modern British people had "dark brown to black skin". According to recent analysis, they also had dark curly hair and blue eyes. In other words, whiteness in Europe is a much newer thing than we thought.

Archaeologists have discovered sophisticated stone tools in India dating back some 385,000 years. That's all sorts of incredible, because Homo sapiens such as you and me didn't leave Africa until about 175,000 years ago. The discovery is resetting what we know about so-called "archaic" humans and the dramatic extent to which they spread out from Africa so very long ago.

Predicting the future is near impossible -- but that doesn‘t stop us all from having a red hot go. Human beings have been predicting the future since the beginning of history and the results range from the hilarious to the downright uncanny.

One thing all future predictions have in common: they‘re rooted in our current understanding of how the world works. It‘s difficult to escape that mindset. We have no idea how technology will evolve, so our ideas are connected to the technology of today.

A re-analysis of a 50,000-year-old Neanderthal skull shows that, in addition to enduring multiple injuries and debilitations, this male individual was also profoundly deaf. Yet he lived well into his 40s, which is quite old by Paleolithic standards. It's an achievement that could have only been possible with the help of others, according to new research.

The world's most famous human ancestor, an extinct hominid named Lucy, died after falling from a tall tree, according to scientists. It's a revelation that points to tree-dwelling behaviour in recent evolutionary history, but some scientists aren't convinced.

Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of ancient stone tools at a dig near Azraq, Jordan, some of which still contain traces of animal residue. A number of food items on this bona fide paleolithic menu will be familiar to the modern eater, while others, well, not so much.

A new paper suggests that Neanderthals, unlike humans, never figured out how to make coats to stay warm, and that the absence of this technological innovation contributed to their eventual demise. It's an intriguing theory, but there's more to the story of Neanderthal extinction than the absence of parkas.